It looks like it was made by a building trades person, who wanted to make sure that the columns went right down to the footings for a solid contruction. Wonder if it required a building permit to execute this design?

That cannot *possibly* have been made by a professional! I am a hobby-type cake decorator, and I'd have been ashamed to put that on the table! There are tapered columns designed to be pushed through a cake, but those aren't it! Square holes? Yeesh. At least camouflage the holes with flowers or icing ruffles - or something!

omg seriously! cover the square holes! is this a budget cake? "um, sorry. your design didn't cover fresh flowers to cover the holes and we've used up all the icing allotted to your cake. we don't have any left to pipe any into those holes."

Lladro cake topper? yikes--hope that doesn't break! next time go with a stacked cake. that's what's in fashion lately anyway.

Yeah, those gaping holes where the pillars are certainly are bad. But.... does anyone else notice the top tier has slid a little? It isn't centered on the pillars. AND --- the cake topper is way, WAY too big for the cake! I mean, come on! That topper belongs on a cake twice that size. Ug. Wreck on many different levels.

Pointy-Haired Boss received the order from corporate, Wally came up with the design, Dilbert complained about it and Phil 'blessed' it before it was faxed to the factory in Elbonia.

Looks like one of those deals I have heard about where only the top tier is actual cake (the couple saves that for the 1st anniversary and eats sheet cake along with the guests) while the rest is actually rented. You get the same photo op, save some money and everyone is happy.

In this case, however, the only thing missing is a sash that says, "Fred's Rent-a-Cake".

Those gaping holes are distracting us from everything else (and I mean everything!) that is wrong with this cake.It's barely decorated at all!They thought they could get away with that with a big cake topper, but it's much too large for the cake.And you can see lots of crumbs in the icing, which is not smooth.Just really, really sad.

For all of you tilting your head going 'Huh??' See if you can figure out which piece(s) the baker forgot (or thought weren't necessary!)http://www.globalsugarart.com/product.php?id=17662&name=Wilton%20Roman%20Column%20Tier%20Set%20Wilton

Looks a lot like the first tiered cake I ever did, WAY many years ago. Except it was smooth, and the shells were even and I knew to put another coat over the crumb-coat and to put down the little plates for snapping the columns into.

Other than that---dead ringer.

PS Is that cake chocolate, or are those columns a foot and a half tall?

If you see a hole in my cakeIt's only there tryin' to hold a columnBut it still can't hold the weightThis thing is uglier than GollumPlease ignore my lumpy frostingThe scallop blobs are nothingI know this looks badCheesy and badThe bride and the groom are so madEven the flower girl's sad

There's some bad wrecks you can bakeBut this one takes the cakeThe tiers of a clownOn a gold cardboard round(Um hum oh yeah baby)

And now to draft a letter of apology to Smokey Robinson and every last one of the Miracles.

That's just sad. Maybe it looks better if you're drunk. Nope there isn't enough booze in the world for that. The poor topper just makes you tilt your head. This would be a good cake for the couple that you just hate.

I truly believe those Lladro figurines are not meant to be cake toppers. I'm glad that our cake decorator was able to convince my mom that it was too heavy for the top of our cake, otherwise something similar may have happened.

Tiers of joy, column as you see 'em, square peg, falti towers-- great lines, folks. This cake does rather beg for them!

OK, not everyone can afford a Sunday Sweets-calibre decorator, so I'm willing to overlook the highly imperfect icing and trim. After all it IS a chocolate cake; if it tastes good, dessert is saved and the photographer can focus on the happy couple and guests rather than the cake for the photo albums.

But for the way the supports were put in: obviously, that baker was previously an engineer. I recognize that logic: if they could bake, I'd suspect certain friends who once suggested cutting a hole in my living room ceiling to accommodate a too-happy houseplant!! (not being an engineer, I just pruned the plant & gave out cuttings)

Ok, there are columns that are MADE to go straight into the cake, not on a column/plate set. But this was NOT it! How awful that whoever did this just decided to stick the squares right on through and not even cover it up! It's just sad I tell you! Very, very sad!

Oh man what a horrid thing to do to someone's wedding cake. I hope they got the deposit back or something. Wow I can't even think of how or why a cake decorator could do this to someone's cake unless this was the first one they made? :( I can see a bridezilla going nuts on this one..and I would agree with her lol.

There are many different tiered cake construction techniques, each using a different set of tools to create different effects.

Some cakes are made with support pillars that have narrow bottoms, which are meant to push through the cake and rest on the plate beneath. Other pillars have wide bottoms, which are meant to rest on a plate without touching the cake (the plate can sit on the table or on top of the lower cake layer).

In this instance, the wreckerator used wide-bottomed columns as if they were narrow-bottomed columns. This put big square holes in the cake and made the whole thing lopsided.

So, to answer your question: use the right tools, have plenty of icing on hand, and if you are adding a cake topper, choose one that is the appropriate size and weight for the cake.

I don't buy the punch-through theory. The edges of the holes are pushed up, as would be the case with someone using a knife or a saw. Punching with something left in place would result in edges pushed into the hole.

I also don't see any clear evidence of cake -- I think the lower tiers are hollow, made of either cardboard or drywall and 'frosted' with what looks like plaster of Paris. Only the top tier is real -- it is for the couple to enjoy on the first anniversary.

I agree with the other posters about the Lladro figurine...I don't even think it was meant to be a cake topper; I've hefted a Lladro piece much smaller than that and it felt like a paper weight!

Many think that decorating with tiers is a piece of cake ('scuze the pun), but obviously a little bit of physics or maybe even an inkling of DIY common sense is necessary to pull something like this off...

I'm just wondering what the mess of piping on the right side of the middle tier is. Was it perhaps to cover up the big hole the decorator left behind when she thrust the square columns through the cake while she was busy watching tv? And after they were done they looked at the cake and said "Oh crap, I'll just put this mound of icing on the side and put round columns instead of square columns. Maybe no one will notice."

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A Cake Wreck is any cake that is unintentionally sad, silly, creepy, inappropriate - you name it. A Wreck is not necessarily a poorly-made cake; it's simply one I find funny, for any of a number of reasons. Anyone who has ever smeared frosting on a baked good has made a Wreck at one time or another, so I'm not here to vilify decorators: Cake Wrecks is just about finding the funny in unexpected, sugar-filled places.

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